GINGER BREAD HOUSE BISCUITS
Ginger biscuit recipe (same recipe used to make 3 x gingerbread houses)
5½ cups sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg
250 g butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 ¼ cup golden syrup
1 jumbo egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Cream sugar and margarine together, add egg, syrup and vanilla essence. Add all dry ingredients. Mix well until completely blended. Let dough rest for 1 hour or you can leave in fridge overnight. Give dough a slight knead and roll out to ½ – 1 cm thickness. Cut out your biscuits with cookie cutters into shapes and bake for 16 to 20 mins depending on the thickness of your dough at 180 ºC ( lower the temp for thermofan to 160ºC )
Note: for the biscuits I pressed out the shapes and made a hole at the top of the biscuit with a wooden skewer before baking the biscuits. This was for the threading of the twine to hang on the tree. Some of the holes may close during baking. As they come from the oven just gently press the skewer in to reopen any closed holes. Let biscuits cool completely before icing with Royal icing.
Royal Icing
In a small bowl add ¾ cup water, add 5 tablespoons meringue powder and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence or you may use 1 teaspoon lemon juice. Whisk together for 30 seconds then add ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar and whisk a further 30 seconds. Transfer this mixture to a stand mixer and with paddle attachment add 1 kg packet of icing sugar beating on low for 10 mins. Pour icing into bowls and colour with gel food colouring. I used plastic squeeze bottles to flood the icing on the biscuits and decorated with other colors. You can use a piping bag with nozzle if you prefer. Leave biscuits to dry overnight on a wire rack before hanging on the tree.
Recipe and photo: Gail Haselsteiner